I will always love you
by DivergentMickey
Summary: Peeta has to watch as Katniss and Haymitch enter the hunger games,


Peeta and Katniss

Katniss walked through the woods trying to find something anything. She hadn't found any game in a week. She heard the screams and cries from the square and tried to block out the sounds of all of the poor people of District 12. Suddenly a bush rustled and she turned and shot an arrow in that direction already imagining what animal lay there. She walked over to the bush when she heard groaning sounds coming from it. This was no animal she had shot someone. Katniss backed away quietly not knowing what to do whether to run or help the person. Before she could make up her mind a hand came up from the bushes and clung onto a low tree branch. Katniss turned and fled she scaled a tree in a matter of seconds and sat there watching closely as Gale climbed out of the bushes his hand holding an arrow which was spurting from his shoulder. He looked around for a moment slightly puzzled before he found Katniss in the tree. She climbed down and ran over to him. "Oh my gosh Gale I'm so sorry I didn't realise it was you I thought it was an animal, I just got so excited since there hasn't been any game for weeks now" "Well you could have waited about hmm I don't know 2 minutes to check that it was an animal" "Well you know how I hate you sneaking up on me" "I wasn't sneaking up on you" "Well then what were you doing? " "Getting some roots" Gale pulled the arrow out and Katniss now saw the extent of the wound. "We need to get you to my mother" "Its fine" "No its not we need to get you there now" Katniss took Gale by the hand and put her arrows into the hollow of a log. When they got to the fence they crawled under and tried to miss the square by walking the long way round. When they got to Katniss's house Gales face was ashen and he was breathing heavily. Katniss yelled to her mother and prim came running out when she saw gale she ran back inside to tell their mother. They laid Gale on the table and pulled off his shirt. The wound was worse then they had originally thought. Katniss was shooed from the room and she sat by the window realising the Quarter Quell was to be announced tomorrow night.

When Katniss woke up she realised she had fallen asleep on the window seat. She walked over to Gale who was lying on the table. She stroked his hair softly and pulled a chair over to him and sat down. Suddenly there was a knock on the door, she didn't want to leave Gale but she knew it would be unfair to wake her mother and Prim after they had spent most of the night caring for Gale. She stood up and slowly walked over to the door. When she opened it Peeta was standing there holding a steaming loaf of bread. She smiled at him "Hello Peeta" "Hello, I heard about Gale " Katniss nodded. "Come in its freezing out there" Peeta smiled warmly and walked inside and placed the piece of bread on the counter. "Would you like to stay for dinner Peeta? Were having stew" "Yes thanks" Gale started to moan as he tried to sit up and Katniss rushed over while Peeta stood there awkwardly. After a couple of hours Katniss decided to go out to get more medicine and Peeta offered to come with her. As they walked through the town Katniss wondered what she should say to Peeta but before they could say anything they heard a whip crack and a young child cry out pitifully. Katniss and Peeta looked towards each other and both took off running for the square. When they had gotten to the square they saw Hazelle being whipped and Rory limping towards her a red whip mark on his back. Katniss ran towards Hazelle and Rory. When she had gotten to them she clung onto Rory and felt Peetas hand on hers she looked back and let Peeta pick up Rory and take him away from the square to Katniss's house. When Katniss gets to Hazelle she yells at Thread the new peacekeeper to stop. Someone comes quietly out from the crowd and whispers in Katniss's ear " Don't interrupt Hazelle interrupted Rory's and now she got a load of whipping and the firing squad best not to interrupt" Katniss looked back and saw Ripper there as she backed away into the crowd again. Katniss ignored her advice and ran to Hazelle's side " Stop! " She cried out. Thread smiled at her and nods to Ripper to untie Hazelle. Ripper does so and Hazelle limps after her towards Katniss's house. Thread yells " Kneel down! " Katniss shakes her head this upsets Thread even more so he brings the whip down on her head and her hands that have gone up. " Kneel! Do I have to repeat myself! " Greasy Sue walks over to him " Excuse me but I think that's enough sir" Thread glares at her and chucks his whip down at Katniss before walking away. Katniss turned and fled the square running towards her house. When she gets there its chaos. Gale has been moved to the spare bedroom and Rory has been set on the couch while Hazelle is on the table. Katniss walks over to her mother "Will they be ok? " "Yes don't worry about them" Katniss goes upstairs to sit next to Gale. She wakes a couple of hours later and found she had fallen asleep next to Gale. When she ventured downstairs she found Rory fast asleep on the couch and looking much better and found that Hazelle was moved to another spare room. Haymitch had been sent to Gales home to look after his siblings. When Katniss walked on her mother looked over "Their announcing the quarter quell" Katniss nods and sits on the window sill next to Peeta while Prim curls up on the armchair with buttercup and her mother sits on the couch next to Rory. When the capitols seal lights up the blank television screen the tension in the room tightens. President snow comes on and talks about why we have the quarter quell and so on. Katniss reaches over and takes Peetas hand as President Snow opens the box. He pulls out a slip of paper and starts to read. "This year the tributes will be reaped from the already existing pool of victors". Katniss stares at the screen unbelieving while her mother sobs uncontrollably, Prim snuggles up to her cat and closes her eyes. Peeta embraces Katniss and she hugs him back but after a while she realises something and slowly untangles herself and she runs to Haymitchs house before realising he is at Gales house and so she turns and runs towards Gales house when she gets there she doesn't need to knock Haymitch is already there. He takes a swig of his bottle "So here she comes heard the news" "Im here for a drink" "Oh well then come on in sweetheart" "Hows Gales siblings? " "They are all tucked into bed so how are you" Katniss glares at Haymitch and grabs the bottle from him and takes a swig of it "Haymitch you have to save Peeta" "Ah there it is, now how would I save Peeta? Oh you mean for me to volunteer for him" "Please Haymitch please" "Fine but if my name gets called first and he volunteers…" "I know I know, thank you Haymitch"

At the justice building Katniss slowly walks up to the stage as her name is called. She looks at Peeta and Haymitch silently willing Haymitch to volunteer. "Now for the boys…" Effie pauses and looks at Peeta and Haymitch "…Peeta Mellark" "I volunteer" "No haymitch you have to let me go" "No" "You don't understand" "I understand enough to not let you go" Peeta slaps Haymitch and that stirs something inside Haymitch that hes been keeping inside himself for years. He yelled at Peeta and slapped him silly before coming to his senses "I'm volunteering for you and there's nothing you can do about it" Peeta spits out a tooth and walks back to his spot. Haymitch walks up to a cautious Effie. "Well here we are with our two tributes Haymitch Abernathy and Katniss Everdeen. Peeta doesn't care that the cameras are on and I don't either I think but he comes over and embraces me tears spilling on my shoulder. I don't know what it is but I start crying too. I can just imagine the capitol now, their two star crossed lovers separated. One, which was going into the games as a tribute and one as a mentor. I smiled at Peeta and as they ushered us into the justice building. Suddenly the new peacekeeper came over and ushered us into the train. "Wait I have to say goodbye to my mother and prim and gale" "change of plans" Peeta stood there silently head down probably thinking of a dozen ways to save me. When I get in the train I sit there silently thinking. Thinking of Peeta. Suddenly Haymitch walks up to me "Now this liquor is good" I give a small smile of course Haymitch would be thinking of the alcohol. Peeta walks into the dining car of the train and to break the unbreakable silence Haymitch pipes up "So mentor whats our strategy? " Peeta smiled "Stay alive" He said before walking away from the dining car. As I followed Peeta I was thinking of what I could say to Peeta when I met him.

When I got to the last car of the train I saw Peeta sitting on the chair at the far end. "Peeta…" "You don't need to say anything" I go over to him and smile. Peeta gives me a look of which I don't need to ask what it means. I know he is thinking of dozens of ways to save me. "Peeta" I say again and this time he looks at me and then embraces me in a hug. I hug him back. He smiles at me "I will try everything to get you out of that arena alive" "Its not possible" "Yes it is" That ends our conversation as a druken Haymitch walks into the room "The capitol are bastards but they sure have good taste in alcohol" I look at Haymitch with disgust "Hey sweetie I did volunteer for your little boyfriend here ya know" I grumble in response and stalk out of the room. That night I don't come out for dinner and I don't think Peeta did too because I could hear effie complaining about us two. When everyone has gone to their separate carriages I quietly sneak out of my carriage and walk over to Peetas room and crawl into his bed "I cant sleep" Luckily Peeta is already awake "Neither can I" I smile at him and snuggle down and then I don't know if it's the lack of sleep or if I am actually thinking I kiss Peeta, not one of the stage kisses that we do in front of the Capitol but a real proper kiss. In the morning I wake to knocking on the door and Effie walks in and gasps "Katniss Peeta remember we are on a schedule! " and Effie is back to her stupid schedule. I kiss Peeta again brushing his hair and then I walk back into my room to get changed. After breakfast Peeta and I settle down in front of the television to watch the reaping's from the other districts. From district 1 there's a brother and sister who is reaped, district 2 a very buff and tough looking guy and a girl with sharpened teeth, district three there is a guy and girl who look very district three-y and very nervous. I don't take much notice of the rest of the days on the train for there isn't much to talk about, the whole train had a sort of low mood to it. Even Effie didn't chatter about much, just the one annoying schedule the whole time. When we got to the capitol it finally got to me. Peeta was going to watch me in that arena and whatever happened in there Peeta would be watching the whole thing. I don't pay attention to much until we get to the chariots. I smile at Cinna as he hands me a black leather suit. I smile at Cinna as he walks off to try to help Portia with getting Haymitch dressed. As I stood on the chariot I knocked the bottle of liquor out of Haymitchs hand "Cant you go one minute without liquor? " "Yes I can and ill prove it to you" he smiled at me and plucked out a bottle of liquor from his boot and took a big swig of it before chucking it out of the chariot. The chariots started moving, I could hear the crowd cheering. As we rode into the square I looked around me at all of the capitol people, there were people with cats whiskers, purple skin and for a second as I looked around there was a capitol person with normal skin colour and no modifications to them at all. I was amazed that this person wasn't an outcast of the capitol.

After the chariot rides I looked around for Peeta to try and find him, when I found Peeta I ran towards him and hugged him which caused some other tributes to look at us in sympathy.


End file.
